strait-lace

American  

[strayt-lays] / ˈstreɪtˌleɪs /

verb (used with object)

strait-laced, strait-lacing

1. to bind, confine, or restrain with or as if with laces.

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Etymology

Origin of strait-lace

First recorded in 1630–40; back formation from strait-laced

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

strait-laced strait-lacing

In an interview 25 years ago with the German newspaper Tagesspiegel he laid claim to a wilder youth than his strait-laced CV might suggest.

From BBC ● Feb. 8, 2025

That article traced her journey from childhood as a male in New York’s strait-laced Westchester County to her decision to transition.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2024

Last year, they were the strait-laced girl who had detailed notes, flash cards and pens for the borrowing; this year, the burnout who shows up at the end and aces the final?

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 27, 2023

Both Republican and Democratic politicos and appointees described him as a strait-laced administrator who played it by the book.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 13, 2023

I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

Depend upon it, it is a fiction created either by papa's hopes or Philip's self-complacency, or else the unfortunate youth must have been brought very low by strait-lacing and milk-and-water.'

From The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte Mary Yonge

Alas! if we may use a homely phrase, many are the victims to strait-lacing, both of stays and conscience!

From The Buccaneer A Tale by Mrs. S. C. Hall

Such was the strait-lacing in which the good man was forever trying to compress his genial, buoyant, and grateful nature.—Scott came again and again; and Wordsworth and Southey met to do him honor.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 43, May, 1861 Creator by Various

The very pattern of young girls is bound by a strait-lacing conventionality.

From Atlantic Classics, Second Series by Jane Addams